Ice and wind bring down the towers of the Longyearbyen (Svalbard) SuperDARN radar

By: miker on: Wed., Oct. 24, 2018 12:34 PM EDT (379 Reads)

PI Dag Lorentzen has reported an unfortunate incident at the site of the Longyearbyen SuperDARN radar. In his words: 'All masts in both the main and interferometer array broke down due to high winds and ice loading. Although the antenna arrays have withstood two Svalbard winters, the current combined icing and wind conditions were enough to break the masts, most likely due to the heavy load of the fence and guy wires. The shipping container with the radar electronics is undamaged. With winter approaching we will unfortunately not be able to make any repairs, so the radar will most likely be out of commission for about 1 year.'

It was noted that the radar had been producing excellent data. The entire SuperDARN community hopes for a speedy recovery.